


Death by Origin Story

by teaandcharcoal



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, POV Second Person, because i am homestuck trash, not sure if au or headcanon, skelebros, some characters stay more dead than others, world building
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-22
Updated: 2015-11-22
Packaged: 2018-05-02 19:39:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5261081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teaandcharcoal/pseuds/teaandcharcoal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Memory is a tricky thing. Especially when you've lived multiple lives. The good news is that no matter what happens, you can always count on your brother to be there for you. Completely inspired by one particular line of sushiinfood's gasterblaster AU: "I'll have you know  magic infused my bones several minutes before they infused Sans'" Which made me wonder about where those bones came from and what all that meant.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Death by Origin Story

It’s a beautiful night, not a single cloud in the sky. Your brother lies just outside your cottage door, staring upwards. His eyes, normally such a gorgeous blue, are washed out by the pale light of the stars and full moon.

“Are you coming in?” you ask. “It’s getting awfully late.”

“Hmmm I don’t feel like moving. Want to come lie out here with me?”

“If we stay out too late we’ll both catch cold and then I won’t be able to set off tomorrow.”

“Good. I don’t want you to leave.”

You huff but walk outside anyway and sit beside him. For a while you look up with him. The night sky had never meant much to you. It just looked like a lot of little pinpricks in dark blue cloth, as random as flower spilling onto your floor. Luckily, your brother is more creative.

“You want to hear a story, bro?” he asks.

“Sure.” You’d always loved hearing his tales. They’re one of the things you’re sure you’ll miss most when you leave.

“Look up there. See those stars? The ones that look like a face?”

“Yes,” you say, even though you don’t.

“He was once a brave man. The bravest in all the land. He was born a peasant, but he was such a strong fighter that they made him a knight. He was sent all across the kingdom, fighting monsters that dared to cross back into the human world, and evil lords who wanted to harm the king.”

“Sounds like a great guy.”

“Yeah… he was the best.” Your brother points up again. “Now see those four stars? The ones that make a square?”

“Of course.” This time you actually do.

“That’s the house he grew up in. Small, humble. His father owned a little bit of land, just enough for a small family to live on. While the knight was off fighting for the king, the farm suffered. He had always been a strong worker, waaay better and more determined than his brother. Father had been planning to give the land to him too, since he was the oldest, but then he decided that he had to go and leave everyone behind.”

You take his hand. “You’ll be fine. I’m sure of it. If nothing else, once I join the royal guard I can send money home and father might be able to hire some extra help.”

Your brother looks away. “His entire family missed him every single day. They all cried a lot.”

“That’s not fair!” you sit up and glare at him. “You know as well as I do that the kingdom needs protection!”

“Our family needs protection! How much do you think the king actually cares about us? The lord barely cares as it is. And you’re just going to leave because you have this dream of being part of his personal guard.”

“I can do it!”

“I know you can!” He rolls away from you. “I’m not worried about what’ll happen to you. Nothing bad _ever_ happens to you, or at least you don’t let it phase you. But I- I can never be like that.”

“Brother, I-“

Suddenly the sky goes bright. Waves of green crash across the stars, knocking some of them down. They seem swept along by the current, leaving white trails. The sky has never done that before, and to be quite honest you’re afraid of what it means.

“We should go inside,” you say.

“Look, if that’s some sort of sign from God about the end of the world it’s stupid to try to hide under a thatch roof. Let’s… let’s go up on the hill. If nothing else, the end’s a lot more beautiful than they said it was gonna be.”

He leaves and you follow him. This is your last night at home, perhaps your last night on earth. If nothing else you want to watch it together. Your farm is near the foot of the mountains, and it bars you from getting a full view of the sky. But if you look to the west you can still see for miles, all the way to the town. You’ve always loved looking down on the fields, but now your eyes are glued skyward, just like your brother’s.

The two of you stand silent. As it was, you should have heard the footsteps approaching, but you didn’t. You hear nothing until a man begins chanting in Latin. You turn to look too late. He swings his sword forward and slices your throat. Unbelieving you touch your neck. You’re too in shock to move when he sweeps his arm forward, making a massive gash in your brother’s chest. You try to call his name but only gurgle.

Your body collapses on the ground and you reach for his hand. As the man sheathes his weapon, the green waves stop.

“I’m sorry,” he says. “God wanted your people gone from this land.”  And then the world goes dark.

* * *

Suddenly, a dim light begins to bloom. It’s a soft whitish glow, like the night, but you realize you’re inside. You blink a few times and the world slowly slides back into focus. Smooth stone walls covered with chalk drawings surround you. You realize you’re lying on a table.

Wait, where are you? What happened? ...Where’s your brother? You look around rapidly, only to find a pristine skeleton laying next to you. Without knowing how, you instantly recognize it as him. You reach out to touch his skull, only to notice your own hand has been stripped down to the bone. Looking down, every bit of your flesh is gone. You pat yourself down and feel only your ribs. It’s at this point you realize you’re not breathing.

You force yourself to inhale and then do the only logical thing: scream.

Someone runs down the hall outside your room. Another skull peeks in at you, small lights like stars in its black sockets.

“It worked!” He says excitedly. “Don’t be afraid, I know it can be a bit of a shock waking up for the first time, but you my friend are quite lucky to have woken up at all! Now which one are you?”

“Where am I?” You ask. “What have you done?”

“What have I done? Ah, dear fellow, I’ve done nothing. This is the work of my master, The Royal Magnus. She found your body and brought you back to life! Quite nice too, that you were in such good condition. Quick clean cut on you. I wasn’t so lucky, she had to stitch _two_ together to make me. You can call me Gaster.”

“Uh, hi, Gaster. I’m-“ But you can’t remember. Why can’t you remember your name? It started with a P… Pa…

“Ah, yes, Papyrus. Well, perhaps that’s not your old name, but it is now. I remember Magnus tried to call me Aster at first, but I remembered it started with a G. So I just merged them together. Oh, I think he’s about to wake up.”

“He’s alive?” You look over to your brother, and there’s blue sparks racing around his bones. He groans, and small lights appear in his sockets.

“Brother!” You shout. You embrace him.

“Bro? W-what happened? I saw you die? I know I died too. How are we- I mean our bones…”

Gaster scribbles something in a small book. “Curious, these two seem to remember each other.”

“Curious?” You demand, “How could I not remember my brother- um, my brother…”

“Sans.” Gaster provides.

“Yes, I suppose that would be you now, wouldn’t it?”

Sans, shrugs.

“Ah! I must go tell Magnus! She’ll be elated! There should be some clothes that fit you in the chest.

Gaster runs off, back down the hallway whence he came.

“I uh… guess we should probably get dressed,” Sans says.

“Yeah, probably.”

What else could you say? What could anyone say? You hand a tunic to your brother and pull one over your own shoulders. Fully dressed, you feel a bit more like yourself. A bit more… human, you suppose. Although your clothes hang funny now, rather limp where there used to be muscle. Sans’ broad shoulders mean that everything hangs straight down, more or less like it did when you were alive.

“Hey, bro?” He asks.

“Yes, Sans?” The name still feels strange on your tongue.

“Do you think we’re in hell?”

You chuckle, “If we are, I can’t imagine how you got here.”

“Funny, I was gonna say the same thing about you. Seriously, though, I think… I think maybe we’re monsters now.”

“I suppose it’s possible. He did say something about being brought back. Who knows what the rules are here?”

“We probably have to wait until that Gaster guy comes back to find out for sure, huh?” Sans asks.

“Probably.”

You take a moment before speaking again. “Hey Sans? How much do you remember?”

He sighs. “Less and less the more I think about it. But I know for sure you’re my brother. And I know we’re in this together.”

“Right.”

“P-Papyrus?”

“Yes?”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Gaster returns a moment later, a black furred demon following him.

“It is indeed as you reported,” the monster says, her voice soft and lilting “Good work, Gaster.”

“Thank you, Ma'am.”

“Welcome back, children. I am the Magnus.”

“What did you do?” Sans asks.

“Well, you see, humans are absolutely fascinating. In their bodies they leave a sort of imprint of their souls. If you add the right kind of magic, a new soul can be created, with properties of both humans and monsters. Well, sometimes, you two are the first successful single-body transformations I’ve had.” She smiles proudly.

“So what happened to the old us?” You ask.

“They died, and their souls did… whatever human souls do after death. I’ve yet to find a real reliable source, even in the most ancient of parchments. But the important thing is I’ve finally worked out this method!”

“Why, though?” you ask.

“Why? Because death is an unsurpassable barrier for monsters. Even the greatest of monsters grow old and die when their children do. But with this, it is said should be truly immortal unless you’re killed. You will one day become the ancients and in your living memory maintain all of our knowledge. What better Magi could King Asgore ask for?

“Of course, when I grow old and die, Gaster will become the new Magnus. But it’s always good to have more than one person around. Also, you may not realize it yet, but the two of you have become incredibly powerful with your single, unconflicted souls. How these powers will manifest I cannot tell, but with the celestial effects taking place the time of your death combined with the amount of magic we fed into your bodies, you may become the most powerful monsters the Underground has ever seen!”

Your throat feels dry, although you don’t want to think about how it’s possible.

“Ah, but that’s for another day. I suppose you ought to be shown to your quarters. Would you prefer your own rooms or-?”

“Together,” both of you say at the same time.

“Wonderful. Well, then, Gaster, take them to their chambers. There will be dinner in a few hours. Technically you no longer have to eat, but you can still taste, and one of my servant girls is quite a good cook. Until then boys, I hope you make yourselves at home.”

* * *

Surprisingly, the castle becomes home rather quickly. You’re still not _entirely_ convinced you’re not both in hell, but you still don’t believe Sans at least had done anything wrong? Unless perhaps he’d gotten a bit too fresh with some of the girls… But even if he did, hell was supposed to be terrible and awful and this just wasn’t. In fact, you were more comfortable than you’d ever been.

In spite of her original demonic appearance, the Magnus is kind and rather… motherly? Your memories of your own mother fade by the day, but something about this feels right. Gaster slips into the role of an older brother. Did you have one of those? You don’t think you did, but you can’t quite be sure. Part of you feels like you should be more concerned about that fact than you are.

Sometimes you want to head out and explore the wider underground, but Sans is enthralled with Magnus’ work, and you wouldn’t want to leave without him. And besides, there’s so much to do! Gaster is teaching you to read and write, although your progress there is a bit slower than your brother’s. But he’s also teaching you to control your powers, and you think you might be getting that faster. Of course, you’ve always been the strong one and he’s always been the smart one, so it makes sense.

Whenever you get time to yourselves, you and Sans always like to explore. The castle is massive, after all. You couldn’t remember much of the layout of your old cottage, but you know it was only one room and you could navigate it in pitch darkness. It feels like there are always new doors and new rooms in the castle. You’ve bumped into the King’s private chambers now and then, but he’s a really nice guy so he doesn’t seem to mind. Besides, his servants usually let you know when things are off limits and gently suggest you go the other way. Or the door is just locked. That happens to sometimes.

One day while you’re exploring the catacombs under the castle you find a room. That in and of itself is strange, as the catacombs seem to mostly be branching paths full of shelf after shelf of monster dust held in urns. But this is its own enclosed space and everything is covered in sheets. There’s a thick layer of dust covering them, but you suspect it’s more of a “the things haven’t moved for a long time” than the remains of a monster. You grab one and pull it away. Dust fills the air, but behind it…

“Sans! Come look at this!”

“What is it bro?”

“I found a picture! It’s the king with two other goat monsters! And, you’ll never guess this one, a human!”

“What?” Sans comes into the room and freezes as he sees the picture.

“They look so happy, don’t you think, Sans? Even though they’re sitting in the throne room there’s something about their expressions isn’t there? I wonder why this was hidden away. I mean, I guess it’s sad that the King’s kids died, but wouldn’t he want something to remember them by? Erm... Sans?”

He’s still just staring. “Do you think we ever looked like this, Pap?”

“Well, a bit less furry and more dirty, but probably. I mean, we did love our parents.”

“Did we?”

“I’m sure we must have!”

“But you don’t remember.”

Your smile falls a bit. “Well no, but-”

“Doesn’t it bother you at all? We can’t even remember our own names. I’ve forgotten what your face looked like, what our parents sounded like. It’s all just… gone.”

You cover the painting back up. “Sans…”

“I never want to forget anything again.”

“At least… at least we’re still together. You were worried about that before, weren’t you?”

He doesn’t respond.

“Maybe some things are better forgotten. After all, why else would the king hide this all down here?”

“I think that’s enough exploring for today.”

“Y-yeah. It’s probably getting late. Dinner will probably be ready soon, and I know how you love to eat.”

Sans chuckles. “Well, that’s one thing I know hasn’t changed.”

“That and you love me right?”

“Yes, Papyrus.”

“Good, because I love you too. And that’s a third thing.”

You offer him your hand and he takes it. Together you walk back into familiar territory.

* * *

There’s nothing you can do. Nothing you can do but watch as the Magnus’ dust floats away in the wet spray of the waterfall. A human child stands behind her, tears running down their face. The book shakes in their hand, tears flowing from behind their glasses.

“I’m sorry,” they say. “I-I didn’t mean to. I just want to go home!”

Next to you, Gaster balls his hands into fists. “Here.” He shoves the empty jar into your hands and strides forward confidently.

“No wait!” You shout.

“He’ll be fine, Pap,” Sans says. “You know he can handle this.”

“That’s not what I’m afraid of.”

The human backs away, but Gaster keeps advancing. His eyes glow white and he raises one hand. The skull of a massive beast appears behind him.

“You’ll regret that, human.”

“Gaster, stop!”

He doesn’t listen. The skull opens its mouth and shoots. The human drops its book as the blast hits. For a moment you can’t see anything; it’s too bright. By the time your eyes focus again, the human’s body is burning as its soul floats away.

Sans rips the jar from your hands and takes a running leap, capturing the soul.

Gaster falls to his knees and the skull dissipates. He sobs and you see black tears begin to fall down his cheekbones.

“Why are we doing this?” You ask.

“I mean, it’s kind of our job,” Sans replies, shaking his head. “We’re supposed to fight any humans that come down and capture their souls.”

“That one had to die anyway,” Gaster says. “After what it did.”

“In self-defense! It was scared, and she attacked it- them.”

“Don’t you _dare_ blame her for this!” He stands, glaring at you.

“Who should I blame? Some poor scared child? We… we can’t even give them a second chance now.”

“If it had just cooperated we could have. But no, it had to fight!” he kicks the smouldering remains, knocking the glasses off and into the water. “You’re too soft, Papyrus. you always have been. Sans?”

“Y-yeah?”

“Good work. I’m naming you my apprentice.”

“Huh?”

“With her gone that makes me the new Magnus. I have to pick a successor, and I need it to be someone _I know I can count on.”_

“Gaster, that’s ridiculous.” Sans says. “You know Pap is way more reliable than me.”

“Perhaps when it suits him.” He takes the jar. “For now, we must deliver this back to the castle.” He sets off nearly at a run.

Sans comes and takes your hand. “Are- are you alright?”

“I guess I just don’t get why we have to fight.”

“You know, neither do I.”

“What do you think will happen now?”

“I mean, I’m sure we’ll have to do a bit more work, since Gaster has to take over Magnus duties so he’ll probably give me his old stuff and you’ll have to do all the stuff we used to split. guess we’ll both have to boneup on our research techniques.” He starts walking back and you follow after.

For a few moments there’s silence. Then you say, “When you’re Magnus, will we still have to do all this?”

“Hey, don’t worry. I don’t think Gaster’s going anywhere for a while. Our kind is pretty durable.”

“I know. I’m just concerned about what he’ll do now.”

Sans sighs. “Look, he’s upset, and for good reason. Doesn’t it bother you that she just died? She was kind of our mom too.”

“Of course it bothers me too, but now that child is- Sans, do you remember what the man who killed us said? On the surface?”

“Man, that was such a long time ago… Oh yeah, it was cause he didn’t realize that the Moor the merrier, right? ”

“He explicitly said that ‘god wanted us gone from the land.’ Is it right for us to be judging humans that way?”

“We actually need their souls for something, though, and we know it for a fact.”

“I suppose. But can’t we just talk to them? Let them know what’s happening and maybe even let them live the rest of their lives? Humans don’t live that long, even by normal monster standards.”

“Do you really think any of them would agree to that?”

“Probably not, but… we won’t know until we try.”

He sighs, “No, no we won’t. But that’s not our choice, Pap.”

“No, it’s Gaster’s now, but what does he know that you don’t? That _we_ don’t.”

Sans doesn’t have an answer.

* * *

It turns out Sans was right. Gaster really wasn’t going anywhere. Over the centuries styles changed, and he went from being a magnus to a scientist, but everything else was more or less the same. You hadn’t understood most of the work you were doing anyway, so the details didn’t make too much of a difference to you. At least they’d moved to trying to figure out more humane ways to gather souls. The three of you spent years working on trying to build a device to capture dying human souls from the surface, but all that you managed to produce was ghosts. In the meantime, two additional humans had made their way down, and both had been killed and their souls collected.

Then they moved to trying to figure out what it was that made human souls so much more powerful and they completely lost you. Gaster took on an additional apprentice, a little lizard girl named Alphys. Sans claimed it was because he was too lazy to clean all of the test tubes himself or whatever. For your part, you decided to take up your old goal of joining the Royal Guard. Alright, it was a different royal guard you used to dream of, but that king has been dead for ages.

Eventually you all moved out of the castle and into a new building to be closer to the developing Core. Those were a hard few decades. Neither you nor Sans had all that much time. Because of the differences in schedules, you actually moved to different rooms. He still came in to tell you bedtime stories most nights. Usually they were in the newer vernacular and out of books, but every now and then he’d slip back into your old dialect, and you could close your eyes and almost, just _almost_ remember the feeling of the cool fresh air on your skin.

It was during one of those nights when Alphys came running into your room, sweating heavily and panting.

“Sans! Sans come quick!”

“What’s wrong?” he asked, his voice sounding ugly and harsh after spending time in your native tongue.

“It’s Gaster! He’s fallen into the core and he-”

You throw the blankets off. “I’ll come too. Sans only has one hp. If something dangerous needs to happen, I want to be there too.”

Alphys nods.

“Come on,” Sans says,

You lift Alphys and follow when Sans opens his “shortcut.” You don’t often use them yourself, you hate the darkness and the pressure. Alphys gasps for breath when you get through to the other side. Oh right, sometimes you forget about the needing to breathe thing. You set Alphys back down. Sans takes a few steps forward, eyes wide. His hands tremble as he sets them on the railing.

“What happened?” You ask.

“I don’t know,” Alphys says. “He was looking into the space-particulate linear inversion tube, and suddenly I got this strange feeling of deja vu, and then when I glanced back he was falling in.”

“He’s gone, then,” Sans whispers,  “He’s really gone.”

“How do you know?”

“There’s a reason we made it spell SPLIT, Pap. He’s been taken apart, atom by atom, spread across time and space.”

“What? What does that even mean, Sans?”

“In layman’s terms, it means he’s dead. Like, mega super dead. Nothing short of altering the fabric of spacetime will be able to bring him back.”

You embrace him from behind. “I’m sorry, Sans. I know how close you were. I know I’ll never quite understand what you had, but-”

He turns around to face you, his left eye glowing blue. “I think I know what happened. Alphys, you said you felt like you’d lived that moment before?”

“Yes, but I’m not sure what that has to do with-”

Sans grits his teeth and vanishes. Alphys jumps.

“W-What did I do?” She asks.

“I-I don’t know. I don’t think I’ve ever seen my brother this angry before.”

“Maybe we should try to sleep. It’s getting late out. I’m sure he’ll be back in the morning.”

You can’t sleep, though. You spend the entire night staring at the ceiling. Eventually morning comes and Sans is still nowhere to be found. You make Alphys breakfast, and decide that you’re going out looking for Sans.

Then you wake up. You look about, confused. It felt so real, and now- now the memories are starting to slip away. Suddenly you hear bone-rattling crash. Immediately, you spring out of bed and look out the window. There’s Sans, and he’s fighting some sort of- You can’t see, the flashes of his attacks are too bright. You shout his name.

Then you wake up. You’d heard of dreams within dreams, but you’d never experienced one. And it felt so real! You’ll have to tell Sans when he gets home.

You get dressed just in time to wake up.

This happens several times over, so many different versions that it makes your head spin. You can’t remember the order or any of the details, but you know you keep waking up and waking up and waking up.

Eventually it’s hard to even convince yourself to get out of bed. But then there’s a knock on your door.

“Who is it?” You ask.

“It’s Sans. I’m back. Uh- sorry about last night. I just had to go see something for sure.”

Papyrus opens the door. “Well this is new.”

“What? Me waking up first? Well, I was up all night, so-”

“No, not that. This is the first dream where you’ve come and said hello.”

Sans stares at you for a moment, his face blank. “You- you remember too?”

“What? having very repetitive dreams? Yes. Why? Sans, is something wrong?”

“Never mind. I- I’ll tell you later.”

But he doesn’t. From then on you keep having dreams like that, but you eventually work it out. You realize someone’s playing with time, and only you and possibly Sans can remember anything. Sometimes these “dreams” are happy, sometimes they’re sad, sometimes one of you dies. But you keep it to yourself. Sans doesn’t seem to want you to know, so you let him think he’s protecting you.

It’s not until the last human, the final one that you say anything. When you finally, finally tell him, he breaks down and cries, holding you tight. You hope with all your heart he’ll remember this. That he’ll remember the confession, that he’ll remember how you still believe in the human because you _know_ they can be good and you’ve seen it happen.

To be quite honest, as you wait in the blizzard for the human to approach, that’s all you can think, other than perhaps hoping this will be the last round of dreams.

 


End file.
